North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO)

post–world war ii alliance for the defense of its members against the soviet union.

On 4 April 1949 twelve countries—including the United States, France, Great Britain, and Canada—signed the North Atlantic Treaty, establishing the basis for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO was designed to defend Western Europe in the face of a perceived threat from the Soviet Union and its Communist satellite states, which formed the Warsaw Treaty Organization in 1955.

Turkey applied for NATO membership in 1950, occupying a key strategic position between Europe and the Middle East. Admitted on 18 February 1952, Turkey agreed to provide NATO with secure access to the Straits at Istanbul and to the Black Sea.

With the end of the Cold War, NATO membership was expanded to include the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland (1999), and seven more states are due to accede in 2004. In September 2001 NATO invoked Article 5 of the treaty for the first time, declaring the terrorist attacks against the United States an attack against all members. NATO played no formal role in the American war in Iraq in 2003, though it agreed to assure Turkey's security under Article 4 of the treaty.

Bibliography

Lenczowski, George. The Middle East in World Affairs, 4th edition. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1980.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Official homepage. <http://www.nato.int>.

zachary karabell
updated by andrew flibbert